Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

Interesting. On Europa we have just had an event which allegedly took us into Blackthorns dream.
Blackthorn himself was asleep in his bedroom and a multi-coloured dreamgate gave access to his dream.

The first room we entered was a replica of a small part of the throne room in Castle British where figures of Blackthorn asleep mused on the empty throne and the meanings of the virtues. The occupants were Order guards and they were not friendly.

Entry into other rooms followed featuring Time Lords and Chaos Guards plus 2 larger bosses, there was a bit too much to detail fully here but the overall impression I got was that anyone with dreams like this has got serious problems.

A false King? Not enough information to state that but certainly it would seem we should have concerns.

In the last room which contained the last figure of Blackthorn asleep and a gate for exit Blackthorn was saying 'And so the dream ends' and a rather ominous 'For Now'

Perhaps all shards will have similar events but if this event is unique to Europa our EMs are to be congratulated on the presentation.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

This should be interesting for us older players.....
You see, Blackthorn was the leader of the Chaos forces........ Lord British is the King in my books and leader of the Order forces.
So.............. that is a pickle.
(btw British may be gone but not forgotten, I am a loyal citizen to my king.)

Stratics Veteran

From my understanding of the lore, the old (pre-Todd McFarlane excrement) Lord Blackthorn was a 'good' aligned person. However Blackthorn and British had ideological differences with the Virtues and how they should be followed/worshiped, if at all. This led to the Order and Chaos guard, and Order and Chaos guilds of 'back in the day'

Now around when Blackthorn's Revenge came out, Exodus and Blackthorn were engaged in some kind of pact, and Blackthorn was turned into a god-awful ugly half-machine, half floating monster; with Todd McFarlane laughing all the way to West Brit Bank. From this point on, he was considered 'evil' and had his castle moved to Ilshenar. (gone now since the redecorating of his castle in Brit).

Currently, it seems we have the old Blackthorn back after Exodus was defeated, which makes you wonder if Blackthorn was simply duped into service by Exodus, and is now freed; or if Blackthorn still harbors ill-intent towards the citizens of Britannia.

PremiumStratics Veteran

From my understanding of the lore, the old (pre-Todd McFarlane excrement) Lord Blackthorn was a 'good' aligned person. However Blackthorn and British had ideological differences with the Virtues and how they should be followed/worshiped, if at all. This led to the Order and Chaos guard, and Order and Chaos guilds of 'back in the day'

Now around when Blackthorn's Revenge came out, Exodus and Blackthorn were engaged in some kind of pact, and Blackthorn was turned into a god-awful ugly half-machine, half floating monster; with Todd McFarlane laughing all the way to West Brit Bank. From this point on, he was considered 'evil' and had his castle moved to Ilshenar. (gone now since the redecorating of his castle in Brit).

Currently, it seems we have the old Blackthorn back after Exodus was defeated, which makes you wonder if Blackthorn was simply duped into service by Exodus, and is now freed; or if Blackthorn still harbors ill-intent towards the citizens of Britannia.

We shall see...

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You missed a big piece.

Blackthorn went to try to defeat Exodus, got captured, and Exodus made a doppleganger of him which was the Cyber Blackthorn.

Stratics Veteran

... Blackthorn was turned into a god-awful ugly half-machine, half floating monster; with Todd McFarlane laughing all the way to West Brit Bank..

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Actually, there reason Todd was in it at all was because the first UO2 (Ultima Online: Origins) had 3 factions, the humans, the meer, and the juka. The juka were industrial/mechanical, and Blackthorn was turned into that cyborg thing in the lore for that game.. It was not originally intended to be part of UO.. They just kinda thought of that later, and cobbled it in, along with the meer and juka.

From my understanding of the lore, the old (pre-Todd McFarlane excrement) Lord Blackthorn was a 'good' aligned person.

Click to expand...

Lawful Neutral would be more accurate. He had his heroic moments. He was not Good, but he was not Evil either, which is what made him interesting.

And while the injection of McFarlane into UO wasn't the best conceived plan, people tend to forget that the Ultima's contained several Science Fiction elements. (And I'm not talking just the first three games.) It wasn't the cut and dry High Fantasy that some people expect it to be.

Stratics VeteranAlumni

I don't see why people are so against it.. I mean, he's still a good guy, and technically was next in line to be king anyway if something happened to LB.

Chaos doesn't mean Evil in UO terms (and most other roleplay systems), it just means something different to order.. in fact, in BT's case it would be that he believes the people should have more control over their own lives rather than be ruled by a monarchy (go read his in-game book!) , which is probably why they chose him with their plans for player-rule forthcoming. It just plain makes good sense and ties everything up nicely; additionally, we get a king who isn't plotting to destroy the world, which is always a bonus.

Maybe someone should pin a post somewhere on either here or UO.com containing both the text of his original book and the one that dropped after Exodus was defeated? Might help ease some of the tensions if the information is more readily available. After all the split between Order and Chaos was never really about good and evil.. it was about differing political views.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

Chaos doesn't mean Evil in UO terms (and most other roleplay systems), it just means something different to order.. in fact, in BT's case it would be that he believes the people should have more control over their own lives rather than be ruled by a monarchy (go read his in-game book!) ,

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And you dont think that wanting people to have more control over their own lives rather than be ruled by a monarchy sits oddly as a philosophy with someone who is now a monarch?

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